Recently I had occasion to sing a verse of “Rum, By Gum” and Jeff Riggenbach asked whether it came from The Lamplighters; I allowed as how that might well be the case. A spot of websearching now suggests the Mitchell Trio.

In the course of my research (ah, here comes the good part) I found two versions of the song with a remarkably large collection of verses.

Was it in a dream that I heard the rumor of a collection of ABBA songs performed in the style of Gordon Lightfoot?

Cartoon: the parable of the Good Samaritan, revisited

America’s Socialized Health Care by Lawrence Wilson M.D.

The War on Pain Sufferers by Sheldon Richman

Hunger for Dictatorship by Scott McConnell

Malcolm Gladwell writes:

Jettas are safe because they make their drivers feel unsafe. S.U.V.s are unsafe because they make their drivers feel safe. That feeling of safety isn’t the solution; it’s the problem.

I am reminded of various more politicized debates.

I drive a Camry, by the way, and my brother drives a Jetta. (See the table in the middle of Gladwell’s article.)

I wonder whether any entity in Holstein uses a symbol like this. The coat of arms of the former Counts is usually described as a white nettle-leaf (nesselblatt) on a red field, but has also been seen as a white field with a red indented border.

I have occasionally ranted that the war on wetbacks is wrecking the American spirit of casual charity. The drug war, too, is doing its bit:

The three men decided to rescue the animal so that it wouldn’t be hit by another car, and take it to a 24-hour veterinary clinic in Longmont.

. . . .

[Jason Lee] Laird, 21, and Zachariah Deming, 19, were ticketed for possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

The injured mountain lion, which wildlife officers guessed was four or five months old, had to be euthanized.

Cited by Libby Spencer (Last One Speaks), cited in turn by Pete Guither (Drug WarRant), whom I visited because Jim Henley (Unqualified Offerings) recently blogrolled him.

Later: Could be worse; I did not notice on first reading that they were “ticketed” rather than “arrested”.

Twenty years ago I sometimes played cards with a deck of six suits: the extras (both blue) were boat-wheels and pairs of tennis racquets. Recently I thought, if I were designing a deck with new suits, they’d be heraldic favorites – crescents, stars, fleurs-de-lis – to go with the lozenges, trefoils and hearts that also appear often in armory: all more recognizable than those blue thingies.

And that in turn reminded me of Saturday morning advertisements for Lucky Charms breakfast cereal: “pink hearts, yellow moons, orange stars, green clovers.” Today at the grocery barn I looked for a box of Lucky Charms to check my memory, and found the stars and shamrocks replaced by rainbows and – oh come now – green leprechaun hats. How long has this been going on?!